What Can I Do With The Ip Address Of Someone

What You Can Do With an IP Address, and How to Hide Yours

With someone’s IP address, you can learn a user’s general location, and disable some parts of their internet browsing device connected to the internet has an IP address, which helps websites identify your third-party programs or services, someone with your IP address could possibly block you from reaching certain you’re concerned about the security of your IP address, consider installing a firewall and Business Insider’s Tech Reference library for more stories.
Loading
Something is loading.
Every device that connects to the internet has an IP (Internet Protocol) address. The
IP address, which is composed of a series of numbers separated by decimal points, looks something like “198. 169. 0. 100. ” This number is used to help devices talk to each other and exchange data. Your network router has its own IP address, of course, as does every device on your network. But because these identifiers are so important, that means a hacker can potentially use them against you. Here’s what you should know about your IP address, and what it can be used for.
What you can do with an IP addressFirstly: most users won’t have to worry about any of this. It’s unlikely that any hacker would take the time to learn your specific IP address, and manipulate your specific device. There’s no real reward in it for them, so unless they love playing pranks, it would be a waste of fact, every website you visit already knows your IP address — that’s how they know to load on your computer, as opposed to someone else’ said, armed with your IP address, someone has the potential to take certain actions against your network. As such, it’s a good idea to keep your IP private from individuals you don’t could:
Block you from accessing websitesIt’s possible to use your IP address to prevent you from performing certain online activities. The most common example of this is blocking your ability to reach a certain site, or to post messages in forums or the comment section of web sites. In fact, this is the most common way that website administrators ban rulebreakers. It’s often referred to as an “IP Ban. “Your IP address can also be used to block or ban you from playing online games on some gaming services.
Learn your general geographic location Your IP address can reveal your geographic location. In most cases, this won’t be any more specific than your city and state. In rare cases, it could be as specific as your IP address also carries the name of your Internet Service Provider (the company that gives you internet access — think Spectrum, or Xfinity).
Your IP address signals where you are. ; William Antonelli/Business Insider
While there’s not a lot someone can do with this information, it can be combined with details from other sources to piece together data about your identity.
Perform a Denial of Service AttackKnowing your IP address, a malicious user may be able to perform a Denial of Service (DoS) attack, in which your network is flooded with data. It prevents normal traffic from getting through and overloads the network’s ability to function. However, these attacks are usually directed at large companies or websites — it’s rare that anyone would set up a DoS attack on a regular user.
How to protect your IP addressWhile there are some risks, your IP address alone poses very limited danger to you or your network. Your IP address can’t be used to reveal your identity or specific location, nor can it be used to hack into or remotely take control of your computer. That said, if you’re still concerned, a few simple precautions can help protect and foremost, your network should be protected with a firewall. Most routers have firewalls built in, but you should contact your router manufacturer or internet service provider to learn about your additional protection, you can use Virtual Private Network (
VPN) software. A VPN hides your IP address from all outside users, making it extremely difficult for someone to uncover your IP address or monitor your online activity.
NordVPN is one of the most popular VPN services.
NordVPN; William Antonelli/Business Insider
‘What is my IP? ‘: Here’s what an IP address does, and how to find yours’What is a good internet speed? ‘: The internet speeds you should aim for, based on how you use the internet’What is Wi-Fi calling? ‘: How to make calls from your smartphone even if you don’t have a cell signalHow to find the IP address of your internet router using a Mac, PC, iPhone, or AndroidNo, Bluetooth doesn’t use cellular data — here’s how the popular wireless technology connects your devices
Dave Johnson
Freelance Writer
Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he’s also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.
Read more
Read less
Insider Inc. receives a commission when you buy through our links.
While working from home, is it a bad idea to give the company you work ...

While working from home, is it a bad idea to give the company you work …

I work from home. Why would a company I am about to do some work for ask for my IP address? What would they need it for? Should I be worried? Thanks
Mark Buffalo22. 4k8 gold badges73 silver badges91 bronze badges
asked Feb 3 ’16 at 20:48
15
This seems to be a persistent question. IP addresses aren’t secrets. Every website you go to must know your IP address. There’s no reason to not give away your IP address.
Many companies have firewalls that only allow certain addresses through to certain ports. This is a relatively common way of controlling access to resources with minimal effort.
However, most people don’t have static IP addresses at home, and your IP address can suddenly change without notice. So just be aware that the IP you have today might not be the IP you have tomorrow.
answered Feb 3 ’16 at 20:54
Steve SetherSteve Sether21. 4k8 gold badges49 silver badges75 bronze badges
5
Why would a company I am about to do some work (working from home) for, ask for my IP address? What would they need it for? Should I be worried? Thanks
More than likely, they need to be able to white list your IP address, or IP range, to allow remote connections from your home. They need to know who’s on their network, and why. There’s nothing to worry about here.
Keep in mind, they will probably whitelist your dynamic IP range (likely 0-255), and not your actual IP address, unless it’s static.
answered Feb 3 ’16 at 20:51
Mark BuffaloMark Buffalo22. 4k8 gold badges73 silver badges91 bronze badges
12
Since you share your IP on every occasion in the web, there is no problem. Usually the reason for this is that they want to whitelist your IP in their firewall to allow you to remotely access them. Apart from that: Giving away your IP can not really harm you.
Even if that one company knows your identity and can consequentially relate your IP to you, this does not imply that any third party can do so. There is no problem in giving someone your IP if that person knew your identity in the first place, no additional information is given.
Other third parties cannot find your name and physical address from your IP address, and you can’t find it from theirs.
Well at last not without help.
We’ve seen that using a whois lookup on an IP address will tell you the ISP that owns it. It’s that ISP that can then tell you who, exactly, that IP address is connected to.
Note that while they can tell you, that doesn’t mean that they will. That information is typically regarded as private and ISPs are not keen on giving it out. What they can and do respond to, however, are court orders.
answered Feb 3 ’16 at 20:57
AdHominemAdHominem2, 98615 silver badges25 bronze badges
7
Firewall whitelisting is the obvious answer, audit whitelisting might be the other.
If we know in advance to expect you to dial in from IPs associated with the northeastern US and all of a sudden we see you’re successfully logging in from an IP address range in Guangdong, it’s going to raise red flags.
answered Feb 4 ’16 at 14:18
IvanIvan6, 2483 gold badges17 silver badges22 bronze badges
Sounds like a poor man’s VPN substitute. Normally the company’s VPN should allow connections from anywhere, and then use one or two different authentication methods (or more).
It makes perfectly good sense to firewall off large blocks like China, but micromanaging IP addresses is a continuous administrative overhead.
Plus there are plenty of users who don’t have static IP addresses, does your company update the ruleset every time someone blips their router/modem?
Answer No its not dangerous to share your IP, but it may be a sign of poor security practices masked by IP-based Access Lists.
answered Feb 4 ’16 at 6:15
CriggieCriggie4782 silver badges9 bronze badges
2
It’s a common practice: for restricting an outside access to VPN and other services. You should not worry and use a static IP address – for your own safety, btw. Because if even someone will steal your password – he will not have your IP likely.
answered Feb 3 ’16 at 23:03
Alexey VesninAlexey Vesnin1, 5431 gold badge7 silver badges11 bronze badges
Similar to [Alexey Vesnin] answer, we setup an external modem and firewall with an onion VPN connection. We configure the connection to run one specific application with username, password, and security questions. The firewall is configured for a static IP and mac address. If any other user/device tries to connect to that firewall it is kicked off. Employees can run personal internet through their own network card and firewall/router/modem. 1
answered Feb 4 ’16 at 4:25
LJonesLJones1071 silver badge6 bronze badges
I work for a marketing and advertising agency. My company needs my IP address so that they can track how many times I visit ours, and our clients’ websites (which we are monitoring to determine the effectiveness of our marketing and social media campaigns). Since I visit the site frequently to update blogs and edit content, my activities could skew the analytics.
answered Feb 18 ’16 at 5:35
ChrisChris111 bronze badge
It seems that it was not clearly stated yet in other answers:
If you connect to any of your company servers, then they will immediately know your IP anyway (as would any other webserver). Knowing your IP most likely will also allow them to know your physical location (not very precise though).
If you want to hide your location for some reason, then you would need to use a proxy or something, but then again, they might not allow you in.
answered Feb 8 ’16 at 12:30
If you work at home and routinely connect to your company’s website then they would have to know your IP since it would be in their logs. Who is doing the asking? Ask them for an explanation. No it is not routine as some have suggested. It may be that someone has been entering into their system to do something harmful and they are checking but, even then, all IPs are logged so it does not make any sense at all. Get an explanation and do not fail to mention that you understand that your IP should automatically appear in their logs so why do they have to ask for it.
answered Feb 7 ’16 at 3:46
1
Not the answer you’re looking for? Browse other questions tagged ip or ask your own question.
How IP Addresses Are Tracked | HostGator

How IP Addresses Are Tracked | HostGator

Want to find out what your public IP address is? At any given time you can easily check it using HostGator’s IP address tool, or one of a variety of other websites. Calling it a “public” IP address isn’t just talk—it really is easily accessible information. On the one hand, it’s nice to know that it’s easy to learn your current IP address any time you need to know it. On the other, in an era with lots of online privacy issues, knowing your IP address is readily available to so many sources may be concerning. You may wonder who else can find this information, and what they can do with you’re worried about how IP address tracking works and what it means for you from a privacy perspective, we’ve collected all the most important details you need on the topic. What is an IP Address? To start, you need to know what an IP address is. IP stands for internet protocol, which is the set of processes that dictate how information is shared across the web. If you’ve ever wondered how one machine knows how to connect to another and what information to share with it, all internet-connected devices use the internet protocol for that. That, in a nutshell, is how IP addresses vices that use the internet are all programmed to follow the internet protocol so they know how to interact with each other and keep the internet functioning the way we need it to. For different machines and networks to effectively communicate with each other via the internet protocol, they need a way to identify one another. For that, each device has an IP most cases, IP addresses are a string of numbers separated by periods. If you used HostGator’s tool to learn what yours is, you probably saw an IP address that fits this description and looked something like: ’s your network’s address. Anytime you send an email or visit a website, that’s how the machines your network communicates with will see you. And that last part is what makes some people uncomfortable. What exactly do we mean when we say that other devices and networks can see you (or at least your IP)? How Are IP Addresses Tracked? Every time two devices connect to one another using the internet protocol, they have to acknowledge each other. In internet parlance, this is generally described as “shaking hands. ” Your IP address needs to let the device at the other IP address know where to send the information that’s being requested. That hand shake is how IP addresses are example, when you’re trying to visit a website, your network sends out an information packet that includes your IP address and port number. Then the server that hosts the website you’re seeking accepts the packet, learns what network is asking for access, and knows where to send back its response in the form of all the files that make up the website. That website and the server it’s on now know your IP address has visited. And your internet service provider (ISP) also has a record of that visit. In most cases, that’s where the tracking stops. A random person curious about your internet history won’t be able to find out what websites you’ve visited just based on knowing your IP ISPs keep a record of IP address activity, which means that, in rare cases, they can share that information with others. And while your IP address only provides limited information to the servers your network communicates with, it does give them some data about you. 3 Reasons to Track an IP AddressWhy does anyone have to track your IP address to begin with? Why can’t you just browse the internet in peace with total privacy? For the most part, your IP address’s activity is your business alone, assuming no one’s looking over your shoulder or checking the browser history on your device. But there are three main instances where that information will be used or accessed by a third party. 1. Legal ConcernsIP addresses are how we as a society identify people who commit illegal activities online in order to hold them accountable. This ranges from small offenses to someone downloads media or software illegally, the company that holds the copyright can find out and track the action to a particular IP address. They don’t know right away it’s you, but they can find out which ISP owns the address and send them a threat to pass along to you. Because your ISP has a record of which IP address was assigned to you at a given time and the activity tied to it, they’ll know who to blame for the addresses are also used in identifying the offenders behind spam and phishing emails. Email clients and email marketing software platforms keep a record of which email addresses look like spam based on the content of the email and subject line, as well as when recipients click on that “mark as spam” button. While they don’t have the power to find the individuals behind the email address, they can add the IP address it came from to a blacklist to keep the emails from that address from reaching people’s inboxes in the future. While that’s a useful tactic to protect all of our inboxes from the thousands of spam emails that go out on a regular basis, it can have an unintended side effect. Because ISPs generally provide customers with dynamic IP addresses, meaning they change regularly over time, there’s always a risk that someone with a newly assigned IP address will be stuck with the consequences of the behavior of the guy who had it last week. It doesn’t happen often though, and it’s a problem easily fixed by changing your IP of course, there’s the occasional bigger criminal offense that triggers use of an IP address to identify someone. If a person sells or distributes something illegal online or talks about committing a crime on an online platform, law enforcement can demand their personal information from your ISP. Again, as with these other cases, a cop or lawyer won’t be able to tell just from your IP address who you are or where to find you. They’ll have to take the extra step of going through your ISP. But if someone’s suspected of a serious enough crime, ISPs are likely to cooperate and hand over that information. It’s worth noting here that while tracking an IP address linked to illegal activity can eventually lead to someone learning the name and address of the person behind the computer, it’s not information your ISP will hand out lightly. Most internet service providers have strict privacy rules they abide by, so the average person asking for information is unlikely to be successful. But a law enforcement representative or copyright lawyer that comes equipped with evidence will be treated differently. 2. MarketingIn some legal cases, an IP address can be tracked back to a specific individual. When it comes to marketing uses though, IP tracking is more anonymized than that. Marketing and analytics software includes the capability to track the location data of IP addresses and provide that data to website owners. So when your IP address contacts a server to access a specific website, the website can track where the visitor is coming from. In real time, that information can be used to personalize the page you see. For example, when you visit the website of a national movie theater chain, often the page will automatically detect where you’re coming from and provide showtimes for the closest theater addition, that information will be saved and provided to the website owner through tools like Google Analytics. They won’t know your name and home address or anything like that, but they’ll be able to see that they got a website visitor from your city. If the website uses cookies, which are packets of information that track and collect additional information on your website behavior, they’ll also be able to connect your visit to other data about you. For example, they can see if you’re visiting the website for the first time or if you’re returning, and which specific pages you visited. The IP address alone isn’t enough to do this; it has to work in connection with cookies. But many of the websites you visit will be set up to use cookies for this kind of tracking. Due to recent legislation, you’ll generally know if a website you visit uses cookies, since they’re required to provide a message telling you so. If you see ads for websites you’ve visited before following you around the web, that’s the result of cookies tracking your internet activity. While your IP address provides information about your location, it’s the cookies that provide websites and advertisers with more details about your specific online behaviors. 3. Scam DetectionConsumers aren’t the only ones who have to worry about online scammers. Many credit card companies and eCommerce businesses now use security software to help spot purchases that are likely fraudulent. If someone makes a large purchase, the software can flag it to be reviewed before it goes through. If the purchase is coming from a different location than where the credit card owner lives, they may check with the owner before processing is another case where IP address tracking won’t point anyone back to you as an individual, but can help companies learn valuable information about you based on location. The fact that IP addresses provide generalized location data (usually based on where your ISP is located) can help protect you, your credit card company, and the vendors you do business with from costly fraudulent purchases. IP Address Information: What Can Someone Learn? In most cases, the information someone can learn based on your IP address is limited. They can find out your city, your zip code (or one nearby), and the area code associated with the area. They can see what internet provider you use, and whether the IP address is on any order to gain any more personal details than that, they would need to go through your ISP, which is only likely to provide your details if a lawyer or law enforcement agent provides them with evidence your IP address was linked to a crime. So most people don’t have to worry about their IP address leading any online strangers to your location. How Can I Keep My IP Address from Being Tracked? We’ve established that people generally won’t be able to find out personal details about you from your IP address beyond your general location. But if you’re uncomfortable with them even knowing that much about you, or if you don’t like the idea of your internet activity being traceable back to you, you have some options for shielding your IP in a VPN Service. A virtual private network (VPN) is a paid service that will mask your IP address when browsing the web. It encrypts all your internet activity and shields sites from recognizing your geographic location. A VPN service comes in handy for anyone concerned about internet privacy, or those looking to get around geographic restrictions for accessing a website. A VPN can ensure your personal data stays secure when you’re using public WiFi networks, such as at coffee shops or the airport. It can also keep your general geographic location hidden, if you’re worried about stalkers or just want that extra level of security when browsing on a search engine. And it can ensure you’re still able to watch your favorite show on Netflix, even when you’re traveling out of the country. Use a free proxy don’t come for free, so if you want some level of protection from IP website tracking, but don’t want to spend any money, another option is a proxy server. A proxy server obscures your IP address by using a middleman IP it shows up as instead. It’s not as secure as a VPN, since it doesn’t provide encryption for your data, but it does keep your IP address from being accessible to your average website user. Set up Tor. Tor is a free, open-source browser add-on that will bounce your internet connection off several different nodes each time you access a website to make your original IP address nearly impossible to trace. It’s not quite as secure as a VPN, as you’d expect from a free service, but it provides an extra level of encryption and anonymity. IP Tracking (Usually) Won’t Hurt YouPrivacy concerns in the internet era are absolutely real and valid. But IP tracking is fairly low on the list of things you should be worried about. The generalized geographic information people and websites can access via your IP address usually isn’t enough to do you any real harm. There are more important cybersecurity issues to keep an eye out for, such as whether the websites you visit use —meaning they offer the proper encryption to keep your data safe— and knowing how to spot phishing emails. Understanding how IP addresses work makes you a more informed internet user. But it’s one aspect of using the internet that shouldn’t keep you up at isten Hicks is an Austin-based freelance content writer and lifelong learner with an ongoing curiosity to learn new things. She uses that curiosity, combined with her experience as a freelance business owner, to write about subjects valuable to small business owners on the HostGator blog. You can find her on Twitter at @atxcopywriter.

Frequently Asked Questions about what can i do with the ip address of someone

Is it bad to give someone your IP address?

There is no problem in giving someone your IP if that person knew your identity in the first place, no additional information is given. Other third parties cannot find your name and physical address from your IP address, and you can’t find it from theirs.Feb 3, 2016

What can be traced from an IP address?

In most cases, the information someone can learn based on your IP address is limited. They can find out your city, your zip code (or one nearby), and the area code associated with the area. They can see what internet provider you use, and whether the IP address is on any blacklists.Feb 13, 2020

Why is someone using my IP address?

That could happen if you have more than one Wi-Fi access point, or if you have both a router and a separate broadband device in connection-sharing mode. Less likely, you have a network address that you assigned yourself, and another device is assigning itself the same address.Dec 18, 2015

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *